Battle Raiden/Enemies/Minor Foes

This subpage entry covers the Minor Foes present in Battle Raiden's non-boss stages.

If you wanted more information on the mini-bosses or the bosses, please return to the previous subpage and visit the corresponding sections.

New Minor Foe Pages
Please click the images presented below to visit the new minor foe pages:

Cyclops
The cyclops is a large, sleek and violet humanoid enemy whose head is composed of a single, large eye. The cyclops is introduced in Stage 1-1. It starts out standing in place and walking a short distance. It will then stop, turn around and walk back, turn around again and then repeat. If the cyclops spots Zenki, it will take a swing at Zenki and try to punch him in the face.

If the cyclops hits Zenki, Zenki will receive a medium knockback and take a low anmount of damage. Also sometimes, the cyclops will slide a bit in Zenki's direction and might cause collision damage if it gets to close.

After attacking, the cyclops will stand still for some time before taking another swing. This enables Zenki to punch or kick it while it's idling.

This enemy is very simple, but it will still take some hits before going down. Its weakness is currently unknown and still needs more research.

If Zenki's attack doesn't kill the enemy, it will be stopped in its tracks and idle for awhile before taking a swing at him.

Zenki can easily avoid a cyclops' punch by either crouching or keeping his distance. Backsteps aren't advised, as Zenki will still get hit by the cyclops' punch if Zenki was too close and still in contact the arms'/fists' hitbox while leaving the initial state of his backstep.

Blue Wolf
The blue wolf is a wolf-like enemy. It is introduced in Stage 1-3. The blue wolf starts out standing in place and watching Zenki. If Zenki walks somewhere under it, it will turn around to look after him.

If Zenki gets to close, the blue wolf will get into an attack pose, run around and leap at him, causing a low anmount of damage.

Once the blue wolf has attacked Zenki, it will either keep running into the same direction or retreat. If it continues running, it might turn arround and attack again instantly, leaving Zenki almost no time to avoid it. Even trying to avoid harm by doing a backstep might fail in this situation, leaving Zenki open to yet another hit.

If the blue wolf retreated instead, it will wait for a moment, giving Zenki a moment to retreat or take it down by punching it or even using the Raigeka (Thunder Smash) if he's quick enough.

Despite their feeble appearance, they only take a few hits before dying, it's rather hard to hit them and the blue wolves pose a great threat if the AI decides to continually use the aforementioned "running and turn around to attack again"-strategy.

Luckily there's rarely more than one blue wolf onscreen, allowing Zenki to take his time before taking action. Whenever there's a blue wolf, there's always the option to retreat, remember it's position and then take it down safely.

Raigeka
While the blue wolf is vulvernable to Zenki's Raigeka (Thunder Smash), it is very hard to hit it with the move as Zenki needs to charge for awhile, thus forcing the player to remember the blue wolves' positioning in their corresponding ingame stages to counter them effectively.

If the player gets lucky though, the blue wolf will run around Zenki in circles, allowing Zenki to charge up the Raigeka and oneshotting the blue wolf with it.

Vajura Beam Exorcism
The blue wolf takes two hits from the Vajura Beam Exorcism. The first one will also stun it for awhile, giving Zenki enough time to retreat by using the backstep. This way, the blue wolf can be taken down without the risk of getting harmed like with the luck based use of Raigeka.

Crimson Attack/regular punch
The blue wolf will take three hits from Zenki's Crimson Attack, but because of artificial stupidity, it will attempt to attack Zenki, leaping into his burning fists over and over again till it dies.

Same goes if Zenki uses his regular punch while crouching. The wolf will walk into Zenki's fist over and over again and dies on the third hit.

Flying Kick
Despite taking three hits to take down the blue wolf, the flying kick is actually a pretty good option for Zenki when dealing with this enemy. Zenki not only can keep his distance, the blue wolf also won't notice him or has a chance of forgetting about Zenki in case he has already been spotted. This allows Zenki to safely defeat the foe.

Gale Dragon
While the Gale Dragon only takes two hit to defeat the blue wolf, the first hit will cause the wolf to leap at Zenki, hurting him. Thus using the Gale Dragon is not advised against this foe.

Vajura Lightning Fang
Similar to the undead, the Vajura Lightning Fang completely misses the blue wolf, but for different reasons. The blue wolf is smart enough to walk behind Zenki while he is charging and attacking him from behind before Zenki has a chance to use the Vajura Lightning Fang. This is possible, because the Vajura Lightning Fang takes slightly longer to charge than the Raigeka, thus giving the wolf an opporturnity to avoid the Vajura Lightning Fang, which isn't present in the other move.

Also, Raigeka will hit the wolf even if it attacks from behind, giving Zenki a small electrical shield, which isn't the case for the Vajura Lightning Fang, which will be shot at a straight, horizontal angle, thus missing the blue wolf. If Zenki tries to shoot the wolf from afar, the Vajura Lightning Fang will miss it, because the wolf is too small.

As the wolf will never leap at Zenki from the right angle for him to use the Vajura Lightning Fang against it, it is impossible to hit the wolf with it, thus making the Vajura Lightning Fang useless against this type of enemy.

Golden Bruiser
The golden bruiser is a heavily armored, humanoid enemy. It is introduced in Stage 1-3. The golden bruiser starts out standing in place and watching Zenki. If Zenki walks somewhere above it, it will turn around to look after him.

If Zenki gets to close, the golden bruiser will go into a kneeling pose and shortly after that it will start dashing at Zenki in an attempt to tackle him. If Zenki is hit, the tackle will deal a medium anmount of damage. Zenki might get hit twice because of this enemy's huge size, it being about 1,5 times as tall as Zenki's Demon God form. This makes this enemy very dangerous and a taste of what Zenki is up to face in the future of the game's progression.

The golden bruiser can either be avoided by using the double jump while it tries to tackle Zenki, which needs almost perfect timing or interrupted by using the Vajura Beam Exorcism, causing it to flinch for a moment, allowing Zenki to escape or fight back.

Gallery
To do: Add more information on this enemy and its weakness.

Ghost
The ghost is a classic bedsheet ghost-like enemy, that is introduced in Stage 2-1. It starts out spinning and levitating in mid-air and won't move from its spot until it spots Zenki.

While the ghost can't do much more than hurting Zenki by flying into him (it probably burns him, because it looks like a bit like a flame), it only does a low anmount of damage.

But what the ghost doesn't dish out, it can take. One ghost can take up to five hits to be defeated, making it a rather sturdy minor foe. The ghost is also pretty fast, which makes it difficult to charge up the Vajura Lightning Fang or the Raigeka if the ghost is only half a screen away.

The ghost enemies spawned by the Giant Oni Head mini-boss have less health then the normal ones are more likely to get bored and fly off after a set anmount of time.

Vajura Lightning Fang
If Zenki spots the ghost early, he can use the Vajura Lightning Fang to oneshot the ghost even when the ghost is barely onscreen. The Vajura Lightning Fang goes through the ghost, allowing Zenki to hit multiple enemies in a straight line.

Raigeka (Thunder Smash)
If Zenki keeps a fair distance, he can take down one or more ghosts with a single use the Raigeka (Thunder Smash). To achieve this, Zenki has to use backstep multiple times and then charge immediately. When the ghost gets into Zenki's punching range (which is around the tip of Zenki's fist when he uses his normal punch), release the attack button to go for the kill.

Rudra
Just as usual, the Rudra kills all minor foes onscreen. Only use Rudra if Zenki really gets into trouble if he doesn't. Otherwise, he will just waste his health and Rudra Protection Scrolls, when he could use another move instead.

Gale Dragon
While the Gale Dragon hits the ghost when it flies towards Zenki, the ghost will need two hits before going down. Use this attack if the ghost is too close to safely charge up the Vajura Lightning Fang or Raigeka.

Other Moves
Beware that all of the moves below will cause the ghost to split into two ghosts on the first hit, giving Zenki double the trouble. Also, each of these ghosts has now five hitpoints.

While the new ghosts won't split any further, two ghosts can be quite dangerous, because they are now even faster than before! Luckily, there is a chance that they will get bored and go offscreen, which is a unique behaviour to the ghost enemy.

A defeated ghost won't respawn, but if Zenki neglects to take down a non-bored ghost, the ghost will follow him through the whole section and keep hurting him like a vengeful spirit!

Vajura Beam Exorcism/regular punch
Regardless, if Zenki charges forward with the Vajura Beam Exorcism or just simply punches the ghost, the first hit will cause the ghost to split into two.

Zenki now needs to keep attacking to deal with them, while other foes might take their chance to take a swing at him, making both of these moves bad choices when fighting the ghosts.

If Zenki chooses to keep attacking, he is best informed to attack them when both ghosts are at a similar position, which allows him to hit both at once.

Crimson Attack
At first, using the Crimson Attack leaves Zenki in the same situation as when he uses the Vajura Beam Exorcism or simply punches the ghost, he has one advantage.

As Zenki keeps punching with his burning fists, the triggerhappy ghosts will just fly into Zenki's fists over and over again until they die. Other foes might walk or fly into Zenki's fists as well, but beware of the Crazy Monks and Blue Wolves.

The crazy monks will keep their distance and use their grappling claw to attack, while the wolves will hit Zenki before he can hit them if they get too close.

Flying Kick
The flying kick is probably the worst choice Zenki can make. It not only splits the ghosts, it will also have him miss them as they fly headfirst into his balls and keep swarming him, while he keeps missing.

Other enemies again will happily join them as they get themselves a piece of Zenki.

Undead
The undead is a undead human-like enemy, that is introduced in Stage 2-1. At first, the player can't see him/her, but as soon as Zenki gets in a range about 1/4th of the screen, the undead will rise from the ground, immediately spot Zenki and slowly walk towards him in a hunched over pose.

So keep in mind that the undead start hidden underground, making it impossible to know where they are unless the player has memorized their locations. While they are pretty slow, beware as they get a good speed boost when leaping at Zenki, which might catch an unwary player offguard.

If the undead successfully leaps at Zenki, he/she will cling to him and start eating Zenki alive! This makes them similar to the Hyouinomi enemy, which also clings onto Zenki. Both enemy types will keep hurting Zenki until he either dies or manages to shake them off.

It is also possible for Zenki to spin jump through the leaping undead, which has a chance to confuse the foe and might make them loose interest in Zenki if he goes far enough away from them.

When the undead dies, blue flames appear on his/her body and he/she falls over, then he/she disappears and leaves rubble behind. The rubble then falls offscreen. The undead don't respawn after being defeated.

The undead enemies spawned by the Giant Oni Head mini-boss have less health then the normal ones and go back to earth on their own after a set anmount of time.

Raigeka
The most effective move to use against the undead is Raigeka (the Thunder Smash), which oneshots him/her. Unfortunately, the undead can interrupt Zenki while he's charging the Raigeka, so the player has to time the move, so they release the button as the undead is in the middle of leaping at Zenki.

Rudra
Unless there's more than one undead, using Rudra is rather pointless. While it oneshots the undead, Zenki wastes more health than he would take damage if the undead got him. Keep in mind that if multiple undead are onscreen, every single on of them be clinging onto Zenki at the same time, which slow him down more and more and make it very hard to shake them off. More undead obviously also eat Zenki way faster than one of them.

The Hyouinomi can do this as well, but in their case, it's more a case of bad luck on Zenki's part, as there's rarely more than a single Hyouinomi enemy onscreen. (though it is possible to have as many as three or rarely even four attacking Zenki, but this is extremely rare)

Flying Kick
Despite taking four hits to take down the undead, the flying kick is actually one of Zenki's best options when dealing with this enemy. Zenki not only can keep his distance, the undead also won't notice him or has a chance of forgetting about Zenki in case he has already been spotted. This allows Zenki to safely defeat the foe.

Gale Dragon
Zenki's Gale Dragon move takes down the undead in two hits and is probably the second best option to use against this foe. It also has the advantage of hitting the undead regardless if he/she is leaping at Zenki or walking near him.

Just be aware, that Zenki can only use punches and wiggle around if the undead leaps at him. Using most special moves won't work in this situation, although the Crimson Punch does, eventhough Rudra doesn't.

Crimson Attack
Like the flying kick, it takes four hits from the Crimson Attack to defeat the undead, but the Crimson Attack also allows Zenki to not only shake off an undead that is clinging onto him, but also allows him to make use of the AI's stupidity. If Zenki keeps punching with his burning fists, the undead will leap into Zenki's fists over and over again until he/she's dead and goes back to earth.

Punch
If Zenki uses his regular punch, he needs to punch the undead four times to take it down. While the undead can jump Zenki if he's standing, the same doesn't go for when Zenki is doing the crouching punch. If Zenki keeps punching while crouching, the undead can't grab onto him and will jump into Zenki's fist over and over again until it's defeated.

Vajura Beam Exorcism
The Vajura Beam Exorcism takes down the undead in three hits, but beware as it needs to be used in succession or Zenki will get jumped by the undead foe.

Failure and Glitches
The Vajura Lightning Fang completely misses this foe as the undead enemy is too small to be hit by it, causing the Vajura Lightning Fang to fly past it. If the undead leaps at Zenki, he/she gets missed because of the dodgy hitbox.

Ironically the dodgy hitbox while the undead is leaping also allows Zenki to avoid it by jumping, spin jumping or flying kicking over it and simply walking away. The undead is not fast enough to catch up with a walking Zenki.

Kishin-eating plant
The Kishin-eating plant is a large, carnivorous plant with a stalk that varies in length for every indiviual of its species. Its head is slightly larger than Chibi Zenki and it is introduced in Stage 4-1, which is also the only stage it appears in.

The Kishin-eating plant isn't like other enemies. Basically being both an enemy and a trap at the same time, it is actually the only one of its kind in this game. These enemies are referred to as trap types appear in Battle Raiden, Den Ei Rai Bu and Kishin Douji Zenki (Game Gear).

This enemy actually has yet another aspect that even makes it stand out from other trap types, as it also acts as a temporary platform.

Behaviour
For most of the time, the Kishin-eating plant is completely static, acting as a platform, which Chibi Zenki can and is forced to use to advance through stage 4-1. But there's a twist as the Kishin-eating plant obviously didn't get its name from being a static platform. If Chibi Zenki stays on the plant's opened mouth for too long, the plant will decide that there's a tasty Kishin resting on it and chomp him in an attempt to eat him.

A plant trying to eat Zenki is obviously bad for his health and deals a medium anmount of damage and knockback as Chibi Zenki exclaims "Gah-!" if a plant chomps on him and the game will show a mugshot of him making a funny face.

As the Kishin-eating plants grow in soil covered by Spike Floors, Chibi Zenki will often fall off the plant and tumble down onto the Spike Floors, getting hurt even more as he's forced to take the whole route of leaping from plant to plant again.

This becomes even more annoying in the new game plus when there's a rather unfairly placed Metal Stinger enemy placed close to the stage section's exit. Zenki is forced to take down the foe without leaving the screen and without being stung by it or chomped by the plant as both make him fall down and end up on the Spike Floors.

How to handle Kishin-eating plants
Generally, there's no way to get rid of a Kishin-eating plant or to move it around. No matter what Chibi Zenki does, he can't deal any damage to it.

The only way to deal with a Kishin-eating plant is to advance as quickly as possible without missing your jumps. It sounds tough and becomes even harder with the aforementonied Metal Stinger being present, but the only real deal here is the Metal Stinger.

Getting used to the plants takes a bit of practice, but once the player knows the plants' timing, they can move freely without being worried about getting hurt.

Handling the Metal Stinger is an entirely different deal, which will be explained in its own section.

Also keep in mind that the new game plus actually gives the player less plants to use as platforms, forcing them to get even more used to not missing their jumps. Something similar can be seen in stage 5-1, where one of the swinging bridges is missing in new game plus.

Gallery
While Zenki can always touch the plant's stalk without getting hurt, he will get hurt if he touches the plant's head in one of the following two situations:


 * When the plant chomps Zenki, while he's standing on it
 * When Zenki touches the plant while its in its chomping/releasing or closed state.

If the plant is in its opened state, it will act as a harmless platform that can be used just like any other platform ingame.

It should be noted that there's only a solid hitbox (around the width of Chibi Zenki himself) at the center of the plant. If Zenki tries to land on one of its mouthpieces, he will fall through it and end up hurting himself on the spiked floor.

Metal Stinger
The Metal Stinger is an insect-like monster, that is about half as tall as Chibi Zenki. It is covered in silver armor. It has two wings and and a stinger.

The Metal Stinger is introduced in Stage 4-1 and only appears in stages 4-1 and 4-3.

As long as Zenki keeps a decent distance to it, the Metal Stinger will just keep going about its merry way, peacefully flying back and forth in a set pattern.

Once Zenki gets into a radius of half a screen away, the Metal Stinger will be alerted and fly towards him and attempt to tackle and sting him, while making mosquito-like noises.

The Metal Stinger is quite fast, so it might catch an unwary player offguard. It also deals a medium anmount of damage and knockback.

Despite it's tough and metallic appearance, it only takes two hits from Chibi Zenki and dies instantly from any of Demon God Zenki's attacks.

How to deal with a Metal Stinger
The best way to deal with a Metal Stinger is to be quick on the draw and attacking it fiercely.

In Chibi Zenki's case, his best offense is to rapidly use the flying kick, which can hit the enemy twice or even thrice in a row if the attack button is pressed quickly.

In Demon God Zenki's case, he can use any move, but his best offensive moves against this foe are his regular punch and the Crimson Punch. Being way too aggressive, the Metal Stinger will fly into Zenki's fist and die.

Light Eyes Dragon
The Light Eyes Dragon mainly attacks by shooting small, beige flames with yellow outlines at Zenki. It is usually mounted to the floor or ceiling. It's weakness is currently unknown, but it has medium health and seems to have many resistances.

Currently there are no known other variants of the Light Eyes Dragon and it has only been sighted in Stage 4-3. It's introductionary stage is currently unknown.

Unicorn Oni
The Unicorn Oni is a humanoid foe that mainly attacks by dashing at Zenki and attempting to punch him in the face. He will attempt this twice in a row.

If Zenki is close to the Unicorn Oni, but beneath or below the foe, so the Unicorn Oni can't reach him, the foe will spot Zenki and continuously try to punch him in the face, but keep failing over and over again.

Using the Gale Dragon will oneshot the Unicorn Oni and the foe has been spotted in Stage 4-3. His introductionary stage is currently unknown.

The first encountered variant is the Silver Unicorn Oni, while the Golden Unicorn Oni is encountered later on. Just like the crazy monk, the Unicorn Oni's variants only differ in color palettes, but otherwise behave exactly the same.

Stage 3-1
This section features enemies that are first introduced in Stage 3-1.

Four Arms Bear


The Four Arms Bear is a bear with four arms, wearing equipment, which perfectly also fits onto the arms-pun (as in weapons).

This foe primarily jumps around the place, spitting fire at Zenki in a flamethrower-like manner. It is weak to the Vajura Beam Exorcism, which oneshots the bear.

Dashkick Demon
The Dashkick Demon is a huge demon with a humanoid statue. He is twice as tall as Zenki and pretty aggressive.

Being a sturdy foe, the Dashkick Demon takes multiple hits.

Once he spots Zenki, the Dashkick Demon will start dashing and do a swift slidekick aimed to yank his horned knee into Zenki's groin. This not only takes out quite a bit of Zenki's health, it also stuns him for awhile, thus allowing the Dashkick Demon to nail Zenki twice, if the player doesn't react the split second when Zenki has recovered.

It is tough to avoid the slidekick, so either use multiple backsteps in swift succession or do the flying kick, which will stun the foe for a short time and interrupts him. Being hit by Zenki's counterattack, the Dashkick Demon will be confused for a few seconds, which Zenki can use to fight back.

Burning Soulscream


The Burning Soulscream is a large, flying, fiery ball of doom, made of the souls of the residents of Shikigami-chou and thus a clever pun on the soul's taken by Shijura's soul reaping scythe in the manga.

It has a large anmount of health and is pretty swift. While it's large hitbox makes it easy for Zenki to hit it, it also makes it easy for the Burning Soulscream to hit Zenki.

The Burning Soulscream only means of attack is homing in onto Zenki and dropping itself onto him, taking out a quite troublesome anmount of his health (about 5/6th of Demon God Zenki's total healh). This makes it the most damaging foe ingame, even surpassing all mini-bosses and bosses. To make matters worse, two of them can appear at the same time, ganging up on Zenki. The new game plus amps this up to having the chance of up to three of them appearing at once.

If Zenki doesn't get away fast enough (by backstepping or using the Vajura Beam Exorcism, as the regular dash is too slow), he might get hit twice. Also never get yourself cornered by a Burning Soulscream, as this will certainly get Zenki killed, because the foe will drop itself faster (over and over again) than Zenki can recover, getting him stuck in a cycle of hurting until he dies.

Luckily the Burning Soulscream is exclusive to Stage 3-1 and thus never seen anywhere else.

Weaknesses

While the Burning Soulscream's weaknesses are currently unknown, it is advised to use Rudra whenever Zenki finds himself in a pinch, as this foe is likely to do more harm to Zenki than Rudra does.

Definitely use Rudra when facing two or three of these foes, as everything else is likely to get Zenki killed, forcing the player to restart the stage section.

Resistances

The Burning Soulscream is resitant to the Gale Dragon and won't even be stunned by it.

In general

One Burning Soulscream is already pretty much deadly to a novice player, two are pretty much deadly to a intermediate player and three can be troublesome to deal with even for a veteran player, making it the toughest foe in Battle Raiden, and next in difficutly to the mini-boss Rock Turtle (if it's fought the way it was meant to be).

More information on the minor foes will be added soon...